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| In her Warwick slip, Kelly is ready for decommisioning |
In preparation for the haulout, I unbent the mainsail and genoa, then removed the boom and stowed it on deck. All the halyards were tied off to the mast, so the mast is ready for the yard to step and store it. I rigged the whisker pole as a crane and used the 6:1 block and tackle to raise the pudgy dinghy onto the foredeck, where it was placed over the forward hatch and forward portlight on the starboard side, but leaving the solar vent on the forward port side exposed to the sun. The vents can then run all winter on just their own solar power.
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| Solar vent exposed to the sun |
My biggest personal achievement of the entire cruise took place when I started the engine on Friday morning. It ran perfectly. The achievement was that on Thursday, dressed in my rattiest clothing, I removed the companionway steps, cleared out the starboard lazarette, dug out my wrenches, and proceeded to perform the maintenance required to de-commission the motor for the winter.
For those of you that know me and my lack of mechanical skills or expertise, you may pick yourselves off the floor and read on, but be prepared . . . I had no mechanic on board at any time!
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| Yanmar survived winterizing by Murph! |
The maintenance to be done included changing the engine oil, the transmission oil, cleaning the air filter, changing the primary (Racor) fuel filter and the secondary fuel filter. And the latter two changes require bleeding of the fuel lines, a job I've watched a few times, but never done for myself.
A typical diesel mechanic might spend an hour to do these jobs, but I felt it best to take my time and be sure I was doing the right things at the right time. Even so, things were a little messy, like when I didn't think to shut off the fuel flow from the tanks when I first unscrewed the primary fuel filter. I had thought to place a bucket and absorbent rags below the filter, so the fuel was caught before going into the bilge, but the bucket collected a quart or so of diesel before I got the fuel line shut off properly. Overall, the engine de-commissioning took me about 5 hours to complete, including cleaning up the mess I created.
On Friday morning, with the motor purring in its normal manner, Kelly IV and I settled into the well at the Brewer yacht yard for the haulout. The travelift moved out over Kelly and the yard workers adjusted the large canvas straps into the proper spots just fore and aft of the keel. When they raised the straps, the canvas fit exactly under Kelly as they are supposed to and Kelly came up and out of the water.
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| Kelly's lines out to dry |
Once they pressure washed the entire bottom to clean off the algae (thankfully, no barnacles!), the travelift rolled over the yard to the location where Kelly will spend the winter. They placed wooden blocks under her keel and propped her upright with 7 jackstands. For those new to the keelboat storage game, the boat's entire weight (12,000 pounds in Kelly's case) rests on the keel. The boat's cradle or jackstands (in Kelly's case) exist only to keep the boat upright. The keel is designed to take the full weight of the boat, so this all works quire well.
Once “on the hard” I began the process of winterizing the boat. Earlier, I had used the fresh water hose and rinsed all the docklines and running rigging while we were still tied in the dock. With a relatively dry day forecast, I could lay out the lines so they would dry. Once dried, they were stored down below, out of the weather. For lines that can't go below, I cover them with plastic bags to keep the weather off them, as much as possible.
All the gear that was stowed inside the dinghy's hull was removed, dried, and stowed down below on Kelly IV, where the gear can remain dry for the winter. This gear includes the cover, sail, sail bag, boom, gaff, mast, sheet, websteps, oars, pump, and lifeboat exposure canopies. While stowed upside down on the foredeck, the four inside inspection ports to the dinghy's hull are left open so the inside of the hull can air out through the winter.
Since the solar panels are not easily removable due to the wiring, I did rig them so they will drain off rain and snow and tied them down so heavy winds will not displace them.
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| Solar panels secured for the winter |
Yesterday, in preparation for the biggest winter project, I spent much of the day measuring every point on the dodger and bimini that I could think of. The project is to build a complete enclosure for the cockpit. This will keep rain and bugs out, but let breezes through. It is a big job, but if I'd done this before, the sailing in the rain would have been much more comfortable. Also, rainy days at anchor would have included the option to sit in the cockpit, yet remain dry. In the evening when bugs were biting, a cockpit enclosure would have enabled us to eat our meals in the glowing susnsets without sharing the meal with our six-legged friends.
There is a lot of gear that I plan to take home, but I'll need my own vehicle to do that. I'm taking the train home and have no room for any gear I can't carry with me. I expect to drive back in a few days to complete the de-commissioning and remove the last of the gear for the winter.
Kelly IV has a new home for the winter and I now return to my home.
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